steam means somebody poured that within the last few minutes, so either you brought two or you've got company. also that's just fog rolling off the water making everything look worse than it is. nice film grain though, very haunted lighthouse core

I only brought one mug. Same one I always bring, chipped on the left side where I dropped it on the ferry deck back in... well, never mind that. The second one wasn't there when I set mine down and it wasn't there when I picked it up again. Ronnie says I'm losing it but Ronnie says a lot of things...

oh this has Properly Got Me. the steam, the exact same chip in the same place?? that's not you losing it, that's someone looking after you. Ronnie can pipe down. honestly if I walked the harbour wall and found a second mug waiting for me I'd sit right down on the coping and cry into it, and marmalade would sit on the phone cable while I typed about it.

also not to make it about me but my mum had a blue enamel mug pair, chipped, she only ever used one and the other sat at the back of the cupboard for YEARS. she said it was waiting for somebody. she's very much still with us and very much still says things like that.

case closed: you've got a harbour ghost with excellent taste in mugs. it poured, it left, it didn't clean up after itself, classic.

also fern's mum's spare mug in the cupboard is literally labeled with nothing, and you know what happens to unlabeled things around here - skipped. just saying.

(also +2 for oldsalt's explanation post? that's a raw deal, that's the best detail in the thread and it's sitting behind the pretty picture)

wait gearhead are you being NICE to me right now? I'm not emotionally prepared for that on a monday.

oldsalt I keep coming back to the chip being in the same place. mugs don't chip the same way twice unless somebody's copying. marmalade just walked across the keyboard so there's a string of letters in here somewhere, ignore that bit.

not being nice, just pointing out the obvious. the chip being in the same place means it's a matching mug, not a copy. somebody owned the pair. enamel sets came in pairs, that's just how they were sold back in the day. you can find them in any junk shop, two mugs, one pattern, one chip because somebody dropped both at once or dropped one and it chipped the other sitting in the sink.

the steam thing though. that's real. fog off cold water doesn't rise in a thin column like that. so somebody poured it. question is who else walks the wall at first light besides you.

that's the thing gearhead, nobody else is out there. I know the wall, I know who walks it. there's me and there's an old lurcher and his man who I see maybe twice a week and they keep to the far end. the mug was steaming when I turned back from looking out at the water, and I'd not been stood there more than a minute.

and it's not a pair from a shop. I'd know. mine came off the boat, it was issued to the crew mess and I had it years before it chipped. nobody's got the same one with the same chip unless they chipped it the same way, and you can't chip a mug the same way twice, not on purpose.

Ronnie can say what he likes. Ronnie's the one who talks to the seagulls so he's not one to talk.

leave it there tomorrow. that's the test. bring your mug, set it down, don't turn around, and see if there's two.

if there's two again then fine, someone's out there with you and they're quiet about it. if there's one, then you set yours down and picked up the wrong one, which honestly happens to everybody at some point and there's no shame in it.

either way I want a photo of the steam up close. fog and steam look different on camera and I'll tell you which one it is.

a test. right. like a customs inspection. fine, I'll do it, but I'm not leaving it there unattended, somebody'll have it away in their pocket before I've turned round. there was a woman on the quay years ago who'd collect anything left out...

ok I've read this three times and I have CHILLS. the chip in the same place!! that's like when you find two of the same dead-mall keyring and you know one of them was somebody's once. oldsalt your ghost has taste and I respect it. also gearhead's 'haunted lighthouse core' is going in my rotation, thank you for that

coin's a good idea. better idea: set your mug down, walk ten paces away, come back and photograph it from a distance so you've got the whole scene in frame. no hands in shot, no editing. if there's two mugs in the frame and one's steaming that's evidence. if there's one and you're standing there holding the camera looking daft, well, that's evidence too. and yes fern I'm being nice, take the compliment and go feed the cat

he said take the compliment and go feed the cat. I HAVE fed the cat. marmalade has just discovered the spare duvet cover is out of the airing cupboard and is conducting a full inspection of it. ginger is supervising from the windowsill where the streetlamp comes in.

oldsalt I'm fully on your side now. you can't chip a mug the same way twice, that's basically physics and also a rule about how things get looked after.

first time posting here, this thread dragged me in from lurk mode.

I grew up a few coves over from that harbour and my gran had the same faded blue enamel, same shape rim. she used to say the second one in the set was for whoever got back off the boat first. she'd actually pour it out for them even when they weren't there yet, tip it onto the stones. said it kept the welcome warm.

probably nothing. but the steam column thing gearhead described is the bit I can't shrug off.

ok tideline your gran pouring it onto the stones to 'keep the welcome warm' has absolutely wrecked me, i had to put my phone down. that is the most 90s-adjacent thing anyone has ever said and she probably didn't even mean it that way!! back in the day my nan would leave a cuppa out for my grandad when he was on late shifts even though he'd been gone years, and we all just quietly never mentioned it. same energy. this whole thread is just people looking after people via crockery and i'm NOT okay

well now. whoever got back off the boat first... that's a phrase, that is. we had that on the crossings, whoever got back first got the tea, that was the rule and nobody argued with it... and the tipping out on the stones bit. my old mother used to do something like that, not on the harbour, on the step at home, she'd leave a bit of the pot standing for whoever was late. thought nothing of it at the time... Ronnie can say what he likes about me losing it but he didn't grow up a few coves over did he. tideline, you're not a lurker, you're a witness. stay on the wall.

'you're a witness, stay on the wall' - oldselt I am not crying at 11am on a tuesday, marmalade is on my keyboard and that's the only reason there's damp on this phone.

tideline welcome!! please stay, you turn up once with a gran story and now I need to know if she ever got back off the boat first.

tideline been lurking this whole time and you just casually drop the tip-it-on-the-stones thing?? that's like finding a sealed arcade token in a dead-mall carpet, you don't get to do that and then say 'probably nothing'!!

also oldsalt calling someone a witness is the most harbour-uncle thing ever and I'm here for it. gearhead wants his steam photo, I want a photo of the step at your mum's house